The Need To Knows
- The Time: 7:30pm PT
- The Place: The SAP Center, San Jose, California
- Place to Watch: ROOT Sports Northwest, NBC Sports California, Sportsnet, ESPN+, Sportsnet+
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3 FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Fear the Fin
Know Your Enemy
In the grand, icy spectacle that is the National Hockey League, there’s that team that makes you say, “well, at least we aren’t them.”
That team this year is the San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks were flirting with “worst team in NHL history” earlier this season when they opened the season with 11 straight losses, seemed to stumble upon a winning formula (possibly involving hockey sticks and pucks), decided that was too intense, then promptly lost 12 games in a row — all in regulation.
You might look at their recent schedule and note that they have recently won 3 games in a row. Don’t be fooled by this — the Sharks got absolutely buried in shot quality and shot volume in those three wins, getting outshot 112-67. The Sharks are catastrophically bad, and their only victories come by virtue of hockey being a completely chaotic and random game and even the worst teams are going to pull out victories some of the time. Which is really all the Sharks have at this point — hope that things go badly for their opponent and pray to the hockey gods to variance their way to a win.
It’s bleak in the Bay Area (at least for hockey). You can get a ticket as cheaply as $13. As the saying goes: if you can’t be a good example, you’ll just have to serve as a terrible warning.
Game Preview
The Kraken should win this game easily, just as they should have won their last two games easily. However, Seattle has made things harder on themselves than necessary, blowing a point against the Blues and keeping things closer than necessary against the Blue Jackets.
One bit of good news is that the Kraken seem to be getting fully healthy. Grubauer is off IR and I would be a little surprised if he didn’t get the start tonight. Beniers is back, and it looks like Pierre-Édouard Bellemare will be coming off IR soon.
Seattle won nine games in a row, ran into a bunch of health problems, but have collected 5 out of a possible 6 points since getting healthy again. When the roster isn’t digging deep into the bag to submit a complete lineup, this team has been really tough to beat as of late.
This is a matchup between a team that is much more talented than the other. Earlier this season around Thanksgiving when the Kraken couldn’t buy a win and lost eight games in a row? Preceding that losing streak was a dominant 7-1 win over San Jose.
The Kraken have just one more game before the all-star break in a very tight playoff race. Seattle had one of the toughest schedules in the first half of the season, but now they have one of the easier schedules. Collecting these two points against bad teams is crucial. Coach Hakstol talked about the importance of maintaining focus throughout the entirety of the game recently.
Get these two points, stay healthy, then get to the break and enjoy a nice long layoff.
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